This two year NICHD-focused R21 Brain Disorders proposal seeks two years of funding to support development of a long-term, sustainable collaborative research relationship and program with the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi, Vietnam. The research program will focus on Vietnamese children and adolescents who are at heightened risk for developmental, behavioral, and affective disorders, because of the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and Westernization that their country has undergone in the last twenty years. Specific aims of the R21 Brain Disorders project are to: (a) Solidify collaborative relationships within the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) in Hanoi, Vietnam. We have a five year collaborative relationship with Dr. Van thi Kim Cuc (our Major Foreign Collaborator), Vice-Director of the VASS Department of International Cooperation, and as part of the proposed project, we will solidify this relationship and extend it to other VASS faculty;(b) Conduct a needs assessment to identify research training needs necessary for VASS faculty to participate in independent as well as collaborative research to address Vietnamese children's mental health problems;(c) Conduct two pilot collaborative research projects, the purposes of which are to (c1) gain experience conducting collaborative research with diverse VASS faculty;(c2) generate data in substantive domains;(c3) provide research training opportunities;(c4) demonstrate the feasibility of our collaborative research for our Brain Disorder R01 proposal, if the PA is re-released;(d) Provide sustained enhancement of research capacity, at the level of the individual researcher, research institution, and (c) policy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project focuses on the epidemiology of children's mental health problems, and risk factors for children's mental health problems. Currently, mental health problems represent one of the highest domains in regards to health care burden in the world. Thus, this project is directly relevant to public health.